Florian is on bill

The UFC 118 show in Boston on Saturday is headlined by former lightweight champion BJ Penn getting an immediate rematch against fellow American Frankie Edgar. Penn lost by unanimous decision against Edgar in April and is seething. He is desperate to be champ again.

On the undercard Cayman mixed martial arts fans will be rooting for Kenny Florian who visited here with MMA boxing coach Peter Welch in June. Both visitors were well received by locals and did a great PR job for the sport and UFC in particular through their friendliness and professionalism during the two coaching clinics they took. They were brought over by Cayman karate instructor Bob Daigle who is forging links with UFC and will be at the show this weekend.

Florian wants to fight for the world title again but must first defeat Gray Maynard in UFC 118. Daigle predicts a Florian victory. “The reason is Maynard is mostly known as a world class wrestler,” he said. “Kenny is a black belt in Brazilian jiujutsu and continues to improve his wrestling skills by training with Georges St Pierre in Canada on a regular basis. He also continues to refine his stand up skills by boxing training with Welch. His kicking skills are better and I just feel that Kenny is constantly improving every aspect of his game. In my opinion the MMA fighters who work at all aspects of fighting, wrestling, BJJ, boxing and kick boxing will have the better chance of winning.”